It is possible to rebuild a challenged community
By Bill Barth
Many years ago, I toured the Beloit Corporation when it led the world in manufacturing paper- making machines.
My guide was a true gentleman by the name of Thomas M. Jones. Tom had joined the firm in 1950, and had the unenviable task of babysitting a journalist because over the years he ascended to the company’s director of advertising and public relations post. Like many men in his day, Tom, who passed away in 2011, believed success in business required giving back through public service. He served on the Beloit City Council, chaired United Givers (now known as United Way), was an incorporator of Beloit Memorial Hospital, and stepped up in many other community roles. He and his wife, Patricia, helped found Friends of the Riverfront, a gift that keeps on giving in the beautiful Rock River park.
I’m reminded of that tour – and how that dark, smelly, old foundry seemed like something out of a Dickens story – after joining my friend and former Beloit Daily News publisher Kent Eymann for beer and sandwiches at the new Henry Dorrbaker’s entertainment venue on the site.
It’s the latest addition to the Geronimo Hospitality Group’s impressively long list of restaurants, pubs and meeting spaces. There are games to play, including duckpin bowling, which this non-bowler would call miniature bowling. The space is huge, and during better weather includes fun outdoor activities along the lovely riverfront. The bar is large and welcoming. The menu is creative and unlike anything else in town. Great place to visit with friends or watch a ballgame.
At the turn of the century the community was sad and fearful as the once mighty Beloit Corporation collapsed, leaving a giant hulking hole in the downtown. Some may remember that I used to write irreverent April Fool’s Day stories, and couldn’t resist spoofing readers by claiming developers were planning to use the deserted site to build Beloit Corpse Theme Park. Many enjoyed that and other April Fool’s yarns, but we also got an earful from people whose lives were disrupted by the company’s closure. Apologies, again, to those folks. The idea, with tongue in cheek, was to suggest opportunity often follows failure.
Enter Diane Hendricks and her late, visionary husband, Ken. It vastly over-simplifies things, but there’s a frequent element to the Hendricks story about turning failed, discarded properties into opportunities and successes. Ken and Diane acquired the old Beloit Corp property and turned it into a thriving multi-use complex where hundreds work and thousands play every day. Farther north along the riverfront they acquired vacant, dilapidated industrial buildings and converted the site into the headquarters for ABC Supply Co., one of America’s fastestgrowing firms. Downtown Beloit is home to numerous other Hendricks improvements – two hotels, innovative restaurants, urban-living apartments and ABC Supply Stadium. Often, the work involves reclaiming declining buildings.
To my continuing astonishment there are always naysayers, who find something to complain about every time a new venture (and big investment) takes off. Prices are too high. Apartments aren’t affordable. Not enough parking.
Blah blah blah. Thank Heaven the Negative Nellies of the social media sewer are just a loud, obnoxious minority. Most people see the transformation for what it really is and just think “thanks.”
It could have turned out differently. I came to Beloit in the second half of the 1970s in the early days of my journalism career. Here’s why I came. In Beloit, there were opportunities to cover urban stories that otherwise required getting a job in a major American city. That’s because Beloit was failing. Industries were retrenching and shedding jobs at a rapid pace. The downtown commercial district looked like a ghost town. Or, some said, a battle zone. Entire blocks were being torn down – and staying that way. Racial tensions were evident. Crime was bad and rising. Population was dropping. Hope was fading. For a young journalist just learning to deep-dive, call it a target rich environment. I expected to make a name for myself and move on.
Instead, I fell in love with this city of many challenges and its cast of characters determined to rebuild something big and beautiful from the ashes of the past. Any objective observer – especially those who remember decades past – cannot miss the fruits of those endeavors.
Ken and Diane Hendricks have been the leaders of the pack, no doubt. They had help, though. Lots of good people have put money, muscle and heart into the rebuilding project – a work that continues and, one hopes, will never stop. Every step forward creates other opportunities.
Henry Dorrbaker’s – it’s named after a Beloit bowling pioneer – may be the latest, but it won’t be the last.
So long as there are believers. Bill Barth is the former Editor of the Beloit Daily News, and a member of the Wisconsin Newspaper Hall of Fame. Write to him at bbarth@beloitdailynews.com.
